Head protection: Greater awareness needed

On a construction site, it would be unusual to see a worker not wearing head protection – perceived as one of the most fundamental pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE). There is a duty placed upon employers to assess the significant risks to their employees and to control these to acceptable levels. The risk of falling objects and injuries to a person’s head is included within these requirements. Often the use of PPE is recommended as part of a series of controls to help protect against risks of this nature. Furthermore, in certain industries it is commonplace to mandate that every person on site wears a safety helmet. Paradoxically, however, even on these sites, welders are often exempt from this dictate. 

In the past, to reduce the risk of injuries to the eyes from radiation and burns from spatter, the focus has tended to be on eye and face protection in the welding industry. As a result there have been a limited number of options for head protection, as there were few head and welding combination products available. The products that were available were often not received well, with complaints concerning comfort and productivity. Due to this, within many organisations there appears to have been a general acceptance, albeit reluctant, that welders need not comply with any site rules requiring the use of head protection, notwithstanding the fact that these individuals have an increased risk of serious injury in the workplace. This has also had the unfortunate effect of diluting the message and rationale as to why other workers are required to wear their head protection.

It is important that organisations fully understand the breadth of risks posed to their workers and the appropriate steps to take in order to properly protect them. It is becoming less and less acceptable to have exemptions of this nature in place and as part of companies’ continuous safety improvement plans those that do exist should be reviewed in light of current industry trends and best practices.

It has been recognised that welders are often working in heavy industries such as shipbuilding and mining where they are at risk if not wearing suitable head protection. With increased focus on the overall health and well-being of workers, integrated solutions have been created that provide workers in the welding industry with a comprehensive piece of PPE that protects their eyes, hearing and respiratory system as well as providing head protection. Yet, despite this huge progress in PPE for welders, it is not something of which the whole industry is fully aware.

At 3M we have seen an increase in enquiries for combined welding PPE, such as the Speedglas 9100 MP Welding & Safety Helmet – particularly from the oil and gas industry – demonstrating that the welding profession is starting to recognise the need to change. We anticipate that in the not-too-distant-future welders being exempt from wearing head protection will be a thing of the past and they and other workers will be equally protected from potentially fatal head injuries.